Ellie Kemper Landed A Comedy Pilot At NBC

Ellie Kemper has been one of the few consistent bright spots during the victory lap/shipwreck final season of The Office, and she’s a former acting student of Don Draper himself, so it should come as no surprise that she up and landed her own show. Here are the details.

Ellie Kemper has signed for the lead role in the NBC comedy pilot Brenda Forever. The flashback-filled pitch: “Stories from Brenda Miller’s past and present are interwoven to give a unique portrait of how a chubby, awkward, but incredibly confident 13-year-old grew up to be a 31-year-old woman who still marches to the beat of her own drum.” [EW]

Now, my default reaction to any sentence that includes the words “NBC” and “comedy” is skepticism, and I certainly don’t think that’s unreasonable. The network has managed to bungle just about everything it’s rolled out since Parks & Recreaction, making “broad” comedies that didn’t land (Animal Practice) and screwing around with promising ones before yanking the plug (Best Friends Forever). BUT, in the last two weeks they’ve given pilots to Ellie Kemper and John Mulaney, so maybe I can set aside the bloggity snarksnark for a minute and give them the benefit of the doubt here. This is a huge gesture on my part. I expect a parade.

You can’t really judge a show by its premise. They’re always extremely vague and rarely get at the show’s actual character. Though the inclusion of the phrase “still marches to the beat of her own drum” does give me pause.

“incredibly confident 13-year-old grew up to be a 31-year-old woman who still marches to the beat of her own drum” It’s exactly shit like this NBC, that makes for crap television.
Punky Brewster : the grown up years